The Ramsey Show - App - You Have To Get Angry About Your Debt! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Jade Warshaw & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:   EveryDollar, budget for the life you want today for free: Click Here "I don't know where to start with my debt" What is "Girl Dinner"? "How do I handle medical debt in collections?" "I'm about to lose my job and I have a lot of debt" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance to win $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSCashGiveaway Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: Click Here Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: Click Here Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? Click Here Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studio. It's the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money. I am your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by George Camel, the illustrious. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225.

There it is. It's a real tongue twister. It really kind of is. Actually, it's not. I just messed it up. Thanks for being real, Jade. You're such a real one. You know, I try to just keep it real with the people.

Give us a call. We'll take your call. Thanks for being real, Jade. You're such a real one. You know, I try to just keep it real with the people. Give us a call. We'll take your call. Talk about your life and money. And we're going to do that with Jeffrey. He's in Charleston, West Virginia. What's going on, Jeffrey? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

No problem. What's going on? I guess I'm just kind of feeling overwhelmed. I recently started listening to you guys and, um, just looking at our, um, our debt and, um, honestly just, uh, probably scared. Um, I, uh, I'm a pastor and then I'm also a chaplain. So I work two jobs there. And then I also have another job. Um, and, uh, I have, uh, my wife and I, we have around $12,000 in credit cards. And I have just under $80,000 in student loans. And then, of course, we have our house as well.

But I guess I'm just trying to figure out where to get started. Is it the student loans coming back that's got you feeling some type of way? And so maybe I'm crazy too, but I'm currently finishing my master's degree right now, which I've cash flowed the whole time. So all of those loans are from my bachelor's degree, which was crazy, and I wish somebody would have told me that to begin with. But I should have that finished up next year. But yeah, I'm starting to look at it saying, I will have to pay these back. And just realizing we're like one catastrophe away from not knowing what to do. Well, what do you have in savings?

About $1,200. Okay. And is your wife working outside the home? No, and she has a lot of health issues, and so we can pretty well bank on after our insurance, we will pay $6,000 up front to meet our catastrophic cap every year. So she's not actually able to work. Oh, my goodness.

We just know that's coming up again in January as well. You guys have kids? Two. Okay. And are they older? Are they in school? Is there child care? They're getting ready to be teenagers, and my wife homeschools them.

Okay. But I'm also looking ahead to them going to college and realizing we don't have a whole lot of time, and I do not want them to take out student loans. Yeah. Can I ask, this might sound strong, but it's just a question. I've got two kids, they're three and five, and they're a handful. I used to stay at home with them and I also used to work from home. I wonder wonder you said your wife's got health issues but she's homeschooling kids and taking care of them that's such a big job and it requires so much energy and so much work it makes me wonder if there is

something that she could do to earn money that might honestly be a little bit less work on her physically. Does that make sense? Yes. Am I way off base by even suggesting that? She definitely could not work a typical job just with literally appointments almost every day. There's a lot of chronic health issues. Okay. And so like I will chip into the homeschooling as well as my in-laws will help out with the homeschooling. Okay, I see. So it's kind of a team effort. Okay, I just wanted to check and float that out there in the most respectful way possible. We're just digging to find some options for you to help you climb out of this thing.

So what is the household income? So after taxes and insurance, everything, I bring home right around $5,200 a month. Okay, good. That's good. And we've got $92,000 of debt staring us down. So have you started following the Ramsey baby steps and looking at the debt snowball and listing them out and seeing kind of what your timeline looks like to get rid of this debt? I've started listing some of this out.

I haven't really, honestly, when I started listing it out, it just became overwhelming. I feel that. Years back before my husband and I got out of debt, I'm just going to tell you a quick little story time. I went to, I had remembered hearing about Dave Ramsey and I went to pick up the book, The Total Money Makeover, because I thought this will help us. And of course, in the book, they tell you to start listing your debt, listing your income. And I was so excited getting the book. But by the time I'd actually done all of the things, listing our income, listing our debt, I felt just like, I'm never going to get out of this. Because you see that reality staring you in the face

But I promise you if you keep going and keep doing the things that the plan says That will start to turn around because you're going to see something that you can do today No matter how small and then you're going to see something that you can do tomorrow No matter how small and those little things that you do are going to start to add up to a big impact and you are going to look back on this and this debt is going to be gone it might take three years it might take five years it took my husband and i seven and a half years um jeffrey to make this happen and so i know that the same can happen for you and you'll probably do it much quicker because we had four hundred and sixty thousand dollars of debt So I hope that gives you a little bit of hope in this moment.

If I'm you, my A1 is I'm getting on a budget. Are you using a budget yet? I just came up with a budget in Excel spreadsheets the other day. Okay, good. And when you do that budget, how much margin is left to throw out debt? Above the minimum payments. I'm not looking at it right now, but probably at least, I would say at least $1,000, but I think I could probably squeeze more out of that. Awesome. That's great.

Now, what's your mortgage payment every month? $1 twenty dollars. All right. So you're good there. That's reasonable comparatively to your income. I'm trying to figure out if there's anything that's just crushing the budget right now. But the fact that you've got a thousand bucks to throw extra gives me some hope here because that's at least twelve grand a year. Right. So we start just doing the math like, all right, the credit cards are going to take a while. Yeah. Credit cards are gone a year. Are you going to get an increase in income from this master's? Maybe at my chaplain job. What was the purpose of getting it? I just kind of always wanted to have that and was trying to set myself up for the future. And then I ended up a few years into it

and realized I only have a couple classes left. And yeah, so I'm just, I don't want to not finish it at this point. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is going to, I'm only going to keep it real with you. This is going to require a deep level of sacrifice and this is probably going to require working like you've never worked before. And that's all I can tell you. You are going to pay this debt off and it is not gonna be without sacrifice. And that's kind of that mindset that you have to have going through this.

You're gonna sacrifice to win. You're gonna work more hours than you've ever wanted to work. You're gonna cut your budget leaner than you've ever wanted to do it, but you can do that. And it will be so worth it when you're

on the other side of this. In the meantime, I want you to go to ramseysolutions.com slash student loans, get some information there about what's going on with your student loans, get some hope there. And if you're interested in every dollar, we've got that on the line for you. So don't go away after this call. Our phone screen will pick up for you. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show, a show where we take calls every day, basically Monday through Friday, George, and we help people with the hardest things that they're facing, not just financially. We find a lot of times that when there's issues with money, it starts penetrating into many other areas in their life. It gets personal real quick and starts touching relationships and emotions and career and past mistakes and baggage and family boundaries or lack thereof. And man, money is just all tied

up in that. It's all tied up in that. And we love helping people sort that out. So if you want to talk with us, give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And we will do just that. George, something very exciting is going on. We do this every once in a while. And it is our cash giveaway. Oh, I love giving away Dave Ramsey's money. Because, you know, he's not hurting.

No, my guy is good. But we can bless some people. We get to be a part of that. I call that a win. I know that is a win-win. We're giving away your chance weekly, guys. We're giving away $500 every single week. And then at the end, there's a grand prize of $3,000.

You can do a little bit. That's a little bag, George. $3,000. Your chances of winning this way better than the Powerball. So yeah, you won't be a billionaire. No. But people actually win this stuff. They win it.

And I think sometimes people are like, oh, I'll never win. So they don't enter. But real people win this money. Look, you can enter every single day. And then, like I said, they draw a winner every week. You get 500 bucks. And then if you get to the end and they draw your name, you would get $3,000. Okay, that's ramseysolutions.com slash cash giveaway. And sorry, just giveaway. It looks like, oh yeah, that's right. Giveaway

slash giveaway. That's right. Easy on them. Like less typing. Yeah, that's right. What was I talking about? And while you're over there, um, you can also get bestselling books like the total money makeover, um, some classics like paycheck from paycheck to purpose. And one of my favorites on your past change your future. And those books are on sale, guys, on the low, low $12. While you're at it, you can go on ahead and pre-order Dr. John Deloney's new book coming out, Building a Non-Anxious Life. That is a must. If you don't do nothing else, make sure you go over there and pre-order that book today. If you do so, you'll end up with $75 in free bonus items. That's a money-making scheme, Jade.

Come on now. If it's free, it's for you and me. I'll take some of that too. Also, you can go on there. There's those questions for humans cards. If you do not have a deck of questions for humans cards, you're missing out. They're so great.

They're so fun. Friends, family, couples. There's all sorts of different editions there. They're on sale. They're so fun. Friends, family, couples, there's all sorts of different additions there. They're on sale for $12 right now as well at ramseysolutions.com slash store is where you would find that. So be sure to check out those two spots, ramseysolutions.com slash giveaway to get the cash and then ramseysolutions.com slash store to get the stuff that's on sale. All right, George, what we got? Well, I've been seeing this trend and it's entertaining to say the least.

It can be bothersome, but my wife related to it when she saw it and it's called Girl Dinner. Girl Dinner! And there is a money tie here, although you may not think so. And so let me explain Girl Dinner because I had to wrap my brain around it

because it's just videos of girls saying hey i'm eating a piece of salami and cheese and a cracker girl dinner and i was like what is happening yes george you you explain girl dinner for the people i had to look this up like this is from a cbs news article this catch phrase was first used to describe a no-cooking-required collection of items like bread, cheese, fruit, and other odds and ends for dinner. Okay. So it's basically when you're like, I don't feel like cooking. I'm just going to kind of snack and call that a dinner.

I'm with that. It's like foraging. Exactly. Now, dieticians are obviously upset here because women are underfeeding themselves. What? They need to have a more sustaining meal. There needs to be more nutrients and nutrition so i get if you're living a lifestyle where it's just girl dinner every night that could be that

could be bad i feel like girl dinner could be a well-balanced meal because and correct me if i'm wrong if i go in the refrigerator i open it up i kind of like this idea well at least what i've seen of it because at the crux of it is they're just eating what they have at the house. Exactly. They're not going out and going, you know, I could really go for a Chef Boyardee. They're just eating what they already have. So it's like you open up the fridge. What do I find in there? A piece of salami. Well, not in my fridge, but okay. A piece of cheese. I go in the cabinet. There's a couple of Ritz crackers. I don't know what you're eating these days. There's a jackfruit in there. You know know maybe there's one pickle left go ahead and eat that one pickle don't let it go to the waste like i like that idea and if you put enough things on your plate you'll get full and there's probably some

protein there's probably some good carbs on there that's true that's fair so george i've seen my wife do this where she's like yeah i'm like oh hey what do you want to do for dinner she's like uh i'm fine i'm like i gotta eat and she's like oh i gotta eat i had a girl dinner i had some snacks i'm like well i guess that makes one of us no you're a boy dinner at all right i need my hungry man frozen meal i gotta eat i have big bones and they need to eat and here's the thing like i get so much joy george from finishing an item of food that I bought. Like when you have a jar of pickles and you finish it, you know what I mean? It doesn't go bad.

You actually finish a jar or like I just or there's leftovers in there. And it's like you've been eating spaghetti for four days and you just go on ahead and finish it. Like that gives me a feeling of like, all right, I've done something really good here with my life. Such an overachiever, Jade. I'm the kind, I go to Trader Joe's, I am aspirationally buying a bag of kale,

knowing full well and good that I'm gonna throw this bag of kale away unopened in five days. No, I think that there is something at the core of this that we can all take away financially, which is it's really easy on the weekend right it's saturday that's when a lot of folks do their grocery shopping and it's like okay it's saturday that that is like automatic it's time for me to go to the store but there's probably food at the house that you can eat and like mama always said there's food at home there's food at

home and my thing is like don't do not go to the grocery store and start buying a bunch of food until you do inventory of what you already have. You might be able to make a girl dinner or something a little bit better with what you already have. You know what I'm saying? So I kind of like the idea. I think there's a video of... James, do you guys have a video? Can we play one of these videos?

They're overly... The crew's been waiting with bated breath to play this video. Let's play one of these videos to give these people an idea. This is my meal. i call this girl dinner oh wow that was okay so if you were watching on youtube you're lucky because that was a wine glass filled with mac and cheese with a chicken tender hanging off that should have been a kid dinner that's a kid dinner that's not look those chicken nuggets were in the shape of dinosaurs so that's what i would call a kid dinner that's

not what i was thinking about i'm thinking about like there was a lot going on there visually and then just audibly it was jarring it was a i was like i have sensory issues after hearing that now when i think of a girl dinner i'm thinking charcuterie like this is just what it says if you're gonna do that you want to try this at home this weekend you at least one protein so meat hard-boiled eggs cheese maybe chicken salad some smoked salmon something colorful some fruits and veggies for some fiber and then something fun they say crackers olives pickles can add some flavor and then lastly make sure it's a proper helping you know this is charcuterie why are they acting like this is new i don't know george let's tell these people our idea because our idea is better which is you just go in the refrigerator and what

you have you eat you don't have to go out and check those boxes because then what's the point you don't have to go check the boxes the way they grocery shop it would be like you getting in your car and then just driving around aimlessly wasting gas and then wondering why you didn't get anywhere you got to have a destination that's why meal planning yes having a list avoid the end caps the floor is lava let's get out of there in and out nobody saw you that's right that's how it should be with grocery shopping instead of just willy-nilly choosing random things that look interesting and then you get home and you realize i didn't't get any food. That's right. And let me add one layer deeper, because this is my favorite thing. Folks are always like, Jade, how do you not go over your

grocery budget? I'm like, I just bring the cash. I take the plastic out of the wallet. Y'all know I don't have credit cards, but I take my debit card. I don't bring it. If I'm trying to really do it right, I put the cash in the envelope, George, and that's the only thing I'm bringing. And do you want to know what you can't do when you only have the right amount of cash? Buy more than you've bargained for. Come on. And you want to know what you are going to have to, unless you bring a calculator,

you're going to have to embrace the fact that when it hits $200, if that's all the cash you have, and they go ahead and scan that box of Keebler elves and it puts you $4 over, do you want to know what you have to say? No. Can you take that one off? And people behind you are like, what's going on here? Those shameful words. That's why you go to the self-checkout and then you don't have to say the shameful words.

No shame. You just take it off your darn self and it's all good. There's one blessing of self-checkout. That's right. I got to figure out where the little barcode is on a lime. I'm stressing out. Can't handle that. You got to start memorizing those numbers.

4011. That's the number for bananas. It'll always be locked in my brain. I can't remember my own cell phone number at this point, Jade. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer,

and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them

and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of healthcare costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget at chministries.org slash budget. All right, everybody, you are listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw. I am joined by George Camel, co-hosting today. Guys, thank you so much for giving us calls, man,

for calling in, trusting us with your deepest, darkest money situations. That is an honor we do not take lightly. So thank you for doing that. Continue to call in and we will continue to help you as best as we can. George, it is hard to believe, but it is back to school season. Can you believe it? What is going on with the South? When I grew up, it was like after Labor Day,

we're going back to school in the Northeast. Thank you. Kids are in school already in the first week of August. I'm shook. I took my son today. He's going to be a kindergartner. Took him to do his placement test today. And I was like, I can't believe school is starting already.

I saw the kids in my neighborhood with the little like chalkboard, you know, first day of school. I'm like, this is precious. We didn't have that growing up, Jade. No, we didn't. It's a modern luxury with the letter boards. It really is. But that time of year is here.

And teachers and students across the country are heading back to that classroom. And to honor the heroes that we call teachers, George, we have one of our incredible foundations in personal finance. That's the curriculum here at Ramsey. But we've got a teacher here on the show with us today who is a teacher of foundations and personal finance. It's Eunice, and he's with us all the way from Chowchilla, California. So let's talk to him. What's going on, Eunice? Thanks for being with us today. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. So happy to be with you. George, I feel like I know you. I've seen you in my course daily. Oh, on the TV screen. I appreciate that.

That's right, because George, you're teaching the lessons. I host the curriculum, and so they see me every single video, and I also do some teaching, and I love getting messages from students that are going through it, and they're like, dude, you're the guy from the, you know, you remember watching videos in school growing up. Yes. And so I feel like a minor zealous celebrity. You're like the guy from Reading Rainbow.

Just like that. I'm nowhere near LeVar Burton. But hey, it's such an honor to have you. You're a hero to us. And how long have you been teaching foundations now? Two years. Wow. Two years.

Originally, the idea, I pitched it before COVID. And my school was on board. But then we know what happened, right? That's right. Especially California, man. Yeah. Wow. So how many students do you have enrolled in your curriculum now?

How many are you teaching? This year, I'm actually going to have more. So it's going to be five periods. And on average, it's 30 students per period. Oh, wow. And they're all seniors. So really, it's the whole senior period. Oh, wow. And they're all seniors. So really, it's the whole senior class. That's incredible.

They have access to this. And it's getting real for them now. They're actually thinking about like, oh, gosh, I'm working. I got money. I got bills to pay. I got college coming up. I want to upgrade the car. I got to pay for my own insurance.

So they're leaning into everything. They are. I've taught many courses, as everybody knows in my school, but this is probably the first time I'm teaching a course where every student is 100% engaged. Because like you said, it is their life. They know they can apply everything they learned the moment they step out of the classroom. I love that. And they're like, man, I'm so glad I'm learning this instead of calculus and, you know, when the war of 1812 happened. You can actually use this in your everyday life. Absolutely.

And I heard, Eunice, that you do this crazy activity with the students about learning how to pay cash for cars and all kinds of stuff. What is this activity you run them through? So, again, I like doing things outside the box. So I see the course. I like the content. But how can I make that even closer to my students? And Chowchilla is a very small town. So access to outside information is very valuable to us and all that.

So I do this activity where I tell students to make a five to eight minute video. And it can be a multitude of areas. But one of those is to go out to a dealership or a furniture store or whatever it is that usually has a something to purchase that you can actually apply for a loan to get and ask some hard questions. So they go out there with, you know, some of them come up with questions that surprise me when I see the video later. But yeah, going to a dealership, that is incredible. They ask questions. They say, wait, you can sell me that car? And most of the time they say, yes, we can. I love that. So you're like, you guys are going to get out here. You guys are going to get hands-on experience. They're about the traps you are yes i love that one particular student that asked he kept digging he kept saying wait so you're telling me if a family comes here and

they can't afford that car what would you tell them well if they're looking for that car they probably need that car he's like no what if they don't need that sports card? So he kept asking these questions, and all the students were so curious to what the answers are going to be. And obviously the outcome here is if you want something in today's day and age, you can get it, but are you going to be owning it or are you going to be just borrowing it until you can't afford it and then you have to return it and feel even worse than you started. That's right. The borrower is a slave to the lender. Man, Eunice, thanks for

hanging out with us. We love what you're doing. You are changing lives by teaching this curriculum. Again, the curriculum is foundations and personal finance. And if you're interested in learning more about that or how you can bring it to your school or homeschool, you can go to ramseysolutions.com slash education. Thank you again, Eunice, for chatting with us. That's what I'm talking about right there. Can you imagine if Eunice was our teacher in high school? I mean, my life would be so different. Come on now. It would have changed everything. I read a stat, George, that said 77% of adults said they did not feel prepared for personal finance when they became adults. I bet the 23% who did, they went through our foundations for personal finance when they became adults coming out of school the

23 who did they went through our foundations and personal finance curriculum okay because now it's been out long enough that we're meeting adults who are like oh yeah i went through that in high school yeah that ramsey stuff man that changed everything that's right it was a need and we met the need let's take some calls let's go to alex she is in austin Texas. What's going on, Alex? Are you with us, Alex? There she is. I'm here. Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? I'm calling because I have a question about how to handle debt that has gone to collection. A little backstory is last year, I had a tumor removal surgery and I took some bad advice from a family member. And the advice was to basically let it go to collection before you begin to pay.

But now it has gone to collection and all the alarms in my body are going off and I just want this gone and out of my life. And so I was wondering if you guys had any advice on how to approach the situation. I've never been in any debt before, and my goal is just to get it paid off as soon as possible. How much debt is it, Alex? It's about $5,000 total. Okay. Is that the original bill? Yes. Okay. Are there any fees that have been added on? Not that I know of. Okay. So that's exactly what you owe.

How old is this debt? It went to collection a month ago. Okay. So collections paid a tiny amount for that debt. And so if it's just a month old, they may not be willing to negotiate with you or settle, but I would still try. And I would ask for an itemized bill and make sure that what is on that bill is exactly what you actually had done. Have you done that yet? I have. I reached out. I had heard an old video of something similar. So I asked for a receipt upon arrival, and I got a few of them back from different collectors because they're all in different locations.

And so some people responded. And the interesting thing that I noticed is that some of those debts are still active on the hospital website. So I wasn't sure if it was better to pay directly to the hospital, even though it had already been sold to a collection agency. If it's already been sold, you're dealing with a collections agency now. I bet you if you were to call the hospital, they would say, hey, we have record of it, but we're no longer collecting the payment on it. Here's where I'm at. Like you said, your body is telling you, I owe somebody money. You're feeling the anxiety of this.

You're feeling the stress of it. How quickly could you just pay this off? I could reasonably call them this week and have it done. So why are you not doing that? So you have the money to pay for it today? Yes. Do you feel like you're being scammed in some way or that this shouldn't cost this? Do you feel like you were overcharged or mischarged?

Because if this is what you owe, I'm going to go in there today and I'm going to pay this bad boy off. That's what I would do. And get everything in writing. I'm done with this thing. You owe what you owe and it sucks and we're not going to do it again. But just call and make sure you get it in writing and say, hey, this is paid in full.

I'm done with you guys once I pay this amount. Do not give them access to your checking account. That's right. That's such a good word, George, especially if you do call and you do make some sort of deal. Get that in writing forever. Keep it in a folder.

Never get rid of it. But I would just not even fool with it and pay that bad boy off. Don't lose any more sleep over it. This is The Ramsey Show. Give us a call. We'll take it. 888-825-5225 is the number. And we've got Mir in Chicago, Illinois.

What's going on, Mir? Hey, guys. How are you guys doing? Doing good. How are you? Good. I'm doing good. Thank you for having me. How can we help today? Yep. So about seven years ago I filed bankruptcy

chapter seven because I had a lot of credit card debt totaling about like 50,000 just in my name. My wife had another like 3000. I paid that off. But seven years ago, I just, it was just bad decisions on my credit card. And I just filed bankruptcy because I, I thought I had no other option. And that ended last year. So we were finally able to buy a house. We just bought a house about two months ago.

And my credit card debt is back up. It's just bad decisions again. So my wife, because since I already filed bankruptcy, I wasn't able to get approved for a lot of credit cards, but I, right now, I have about $16,000 in my credit card debt and my wife has about $22,000.

Oh my goodness. And yeah, and we're just in like a really bad position right now. I think I'm going to get laid off from my job in about, I think, in December because that's what the company is like. That's what they're sounding like. They're going to lay everybody off in December. They're just shutting down.

What kind of company is it? It's called Sonova. It's a hearing aid company. I just work in the warehouse in the factory. So you know this layoff is coming. Have you started looking for other jobs? Not yet, but I am

going to start this month or next month. So like I was saying, we bought a house and that is about $220,000. We have mortgage left, $220,000. What's the mortgage?

What do you pay every month? About around $1,900, so $2,000 almost. Okay. Cars? Do you have car payments or anything like that? No. All of my cars are paid off. I pay those off as fast as I can.

Okay. No student loans, nothing like that? No, nothing. Okay. Hey, what's going on with these credit cards? Why are you back down the same road that led to bankruptcy? What's going on there? Just bad decisions. We need furniture for the house, just everything on credit cards because we don't have cash what are you earning household income combined you and your wife oh my wife doesn't work but so last year we got approved for a house because i was making around fifty thousand dollars a year fifty but since the

company yeah fifty thousand dollars last year but but since the company is shutting down and they're slowly removing lots of employees, this year I'm projected to make around $35,000. Okay, but you're also getting another job. We're not waiting around until December to see what happens. Yeah, and your income is already starting to go down. Why isn't your wife working? She's old. She used to work as a nurse but what do you mean she's old how old is she 55 that's old she's not old she's not old and she's broke y'all are broke she's

gonna be working until she's 75 at this point if you don't change something hold on question does she does she have money are you guys combining your finances no she doesn't make any money it's just oh do you guys have anything in savings my wife's credit card yeah is there anything in savings no all right i'm um i um All right. I'm I am holding back a little bit of frustration with you here. Your wife's got to work. That's number one. Number two, you've got to get you got to get moving. My guy there, you're heading down. You're literally looking at the map from your bankruptcy and you're taking that same path now. And this is your wake up call to get off of it. You guys got to get on a budget. You've got $50,000 of income.

Your wife's going to go out. She's going to get a job. I don't care what it is. She's getting something in the next couple of weeks and that is going to lead to the next something. That's what she really wants to do. But no matter what, she's got to get income coming in. You've got to get your income up with this next job. And you guys have got to get a clue, turn into the adults that you are and stop buying things you can't afford. It's that simple. You guys are out here just spending and spending and buying furniture and going to dinner and trying to keep up a lifestyle that's not yours dude and at what cost it's not worth it who cares how nice of a couch you have you're feeling this pain of debt you've already walked through bankruptcy is it worth it it's not worth it you called today because i feel like you're on the brink of ready to change,

but you're not quite there yet. And so if you really want to change, you've got to have anger towards your situation. And right now, you're just kind of like, I might get laid off. My wife's not worried. She's just too old, and we'll figure it out. But man, I really don't like having this debt. You're going to be headed toward another bankruptcy soon if nothing changes. You're going to lose the house. You're not going to have a house to put a couch in because they're going to take away that house in foreclosure when you

lose your job or you're making 35 grand and can't pay your $2,000 a month mortgage. So it's time to cut up the cards. Are you ready? Yeah. You're like a recovering alcoholic who has the fridge stocked with alcohol. And then you're wondering why you can't make traction. We've got to remove the temptation and ability to spend more than we make. Yeah. Is your wife, how does your wife feel about this? Is she like, hey, it's time to change? Have you guys had this conversation? Or is this you kind of, you know, poking around online and finding the Ramsey Show. Tell me more about that. So my son actually told me about The Ramsey Show. I thought I might just give it a call, see what advice I can get. She's very frustrated with me too because she doesn't earn any money.

It's just her credit card that I'm spending all the expenses on. And she doesn't want her credit report to go bad. Who cares about the freaking credit report? Yeah. You guys are, y'all are focused on the wrong thing. We're way beyond that, my man. Your credit score, your credit cards, all that talk, all that mentality is out the window. From now on, we buy things in cash, right? We buy things that we can afford. A1, step one today is you guys getting on a budget. That's numero uno. You can

start that tonight. That's a good thing about a budget, George. You don't have to, it's not something that's in the future. Do that tonight. A2 is we're starting to look for jobs for both of you. Like we're getting that train going. We're not waiting around. Is there a reason that your wife is not working aside from the fact that you guys are elderly age no she used to work as a nurse and she got like really arthritis in her knees she can't she can't walk that much she can't stand is she on disability no she can get a desk job i mean we sit all day i sit too much could she work in a hospital setting sitting down in a different position can she do teledoc nursing there's look there's options we can split hairs about what she

there are options out there what i'm concerned is i think you guys are cutting yourselves out i think you're counting yourselves out and you're so busy trying to use credit cards that you're not giving yourself credit that you actually have the ability to go out there. You guys are smart. You can earn money. You guys have the ability to control your finances. You do not need credit cards to do the things that you want to do on an everyday basis. It turns out, you can actually buy a couch in cash. You know what I'm saying? So I think for you guys, this is just digging deep and getting to the root of why you're why it's the why. Because something tells me right now I can tell you about budgets all day.

I can tell you about the debt snowball all day. But until you get to the root of why you are the way that you are, the famous words of Michael Scott, why are you the way you are? You're going to keep doing this. This is going to be an endless cycle. And so for you, I really want you to dig deep on this. Sit down with your wife, really have that come to Jesus moment of like, look, we got to change. We got to do something different or else we're going to file bankruptcy again. Please don't do this. And we're going to help you out on top of giving you one year of every dollar.

I'm going to give to you guys one year of Financial Peace University. Watch all nine lessons. Do the budget. Do all the steps we teach in that before you go make another dumb decision and cut up the cards today. It's done. And you got to get on board. Otherwise, you guys are going to be right back where you were seven years ago. And I'm more angry than you are at this point. That's a problem. It is a problem. Hang on the line. We'll get you guys the help that you need. Got to get that mind right. It's imperative to get your money mind right. That does it for this hour of the show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Hey, George Camel here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips

on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.